Using the granny charger in France

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The hotel we are in offered us the ability to charge the car whilst here; I assumed they had a charging station from one of the networks (these are often in hotel car parks), so at least 7kW. But when we arrived we saw that they just have a standard electric socket outside next to two of the parking bays! This means we need to use the granny charger.

To recap, the “granny charger” is a charging cable that plugs in to a normal electric socket. The one that comes with the Ioniq 5 can be set to draw 6, 8 or 10 amps, meaning about 1.4kW, 1.8kW or 2.3kW. But of course it has a UK plug. I researched using a travel adapter, and as I suspected it is not recommended. There are two problems: often the earth “hole” in the adapter is not connected to the earth pin in the UK plug (it is not in any of my travel adapters), and second the pins are small and will get hot, and may melt the plastic! 

The lesson learned is that if you drive on mainland Europe and you want to use your granny charger, then before you travel you need to buy a heavy duty adapter, for example from Tough Leads.

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